Con Coughlin is the Telegraph's Defence Editor and a world-renowned expert on global security and terrorism issues. He is the author of several critically acclaimed books. His new book, Churchill's First War: Young Winston and the fight against the Taliban, is published by Macmillan in London and Thomas Dunne Books in New York. He appears regularly on radio and television in Britain and America.

Libya is the new Afghanistan

So the worst-kept secret of the Libyan campaign is out – the SAS are busily hunting down Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, having orchestrated the rebels' stunning advance on Tripoli. So much for David Cameron's insistence that there would be no British boots on the ground in this conflict.

By July the logic of this argument was obvious as the entire campaign was running into the sand, with Gaddafi still clinging to power after Nato had flown in excess of 16,000 combat missions, and the rebels in total disarray. Enter the SAS to save the day.

How sending in the SAS to hunt down Gaddafi squares with the original UN mandate is no doubt an issue people will want to examine further the next time there is a proper public debate on the issue. But to my mind Mr Cameron's sophistry on the legitimacy of his Libyan adventure is no different to Tony Blair's cavalier attitude towards the UN over Iraq.

But then avoiding another Iraq has been the main obsession of Messrs Cameron and Clegg as they have bloodied themselves in the desert sands of North Africa. On the contrary, the military approach to Libya has been predicated not on the Iraq campaign but the original military intervention in Afghanistan in 2001 when a handful of British and American special forces linked up with local Afghans to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

Ten years on, as we look back on the initial success that operation achieved, it was not exactly the triumph everyone hailed at the time. For a start the main targets of the campaign, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar, the Taliban chief, were allowed to escape into Pakistan, despite being spotted by British special forces making their getaway from Tora Bora. Nor can the post-conflict management of Afghanistan be said to have been a roaring success.

Fast forward to the events now unfolding in Libya, with the Gaddafi clan on the run and the rebels turning on each other, the parallels with Afghanistan do not inspire confidence.

But now that the SAS are on Gaddafi's trail let's hope they have more success in nailing their man than they did with bin Laden. It was, after all, only a few months ago that the SAS were training Gaddafi's goons on the instructions of the same British government that is now trying to liquidate the Libyan leader. (I wonder if the SAS has any real intention of capturing Gaddafi alive? Or will it be a straight kill mission, like the US Navy Seals' assault on bin Laden in Abbottabad in May?)

Let's just hope that the SAS's previous dealings with Gaddafi's regime gives them the upper hand as this conflict reaches its denouement. At least with Gaddafi out of the way, Libya will be rid of the most problematic obstacle to the success of its future development.